A different path: Sinitiere was room mother, then teacher

Editor’s note: This is the second part of a three-part series featuring St. Mary Parish’s Teachers of the Year. Friday’s story will be about high school honoree Yvette Lake.

St. Mary Parish Middle School Teacher of the Year Loraine Sinitiere attributes her work ethic and her successful teaching career to her German heritage.
“Germans are very strong people, structured, straight to the point and caring,” Sinitiere said. “Germans are taught to be very dedicated and to do their very best.”
Sinitiere is a fifth-grade English language arts teacher at Patterson Junior High School. This is her fourth year at the school and her 13th year of teaching.
“She’s going do what she has to do,” said Patterson Junior High School Principal Suzanne Bergeron. “She gets here at 5:30 or 6 o’clock in the morning and will stay till the end of the day.
“She’s here before the janitors. It takes that kind of dedication, but she can do that because she’s a grandparent now.”
“I think I’m lucky in that I started teaching when my kids got older,” Sinitiere said. “I give a lot a time to the teaching profession. That’s the way I am.”
Sinitiere is from Germany. Her father died when she was young. Later, Sinitiere’s mother remarried. Her stepfather was in the military, which is how her family ended up in the United States.
Eventually the family landed in St. Mary Parish, when Sinitiere was in seventh grade. She is a graduate of Centerville High School.
The path to teaching was not straight for her. As a mother, she chose to focus first on her children.
Sinitiere started as a room mother and then moved on to substitute teaching. Through her long-term subbing assignments, she discovered “she was good at it.”
Sinitiere decided to work on a degree in elementary education and attended Nicholls State University.
“While my kids were in school, I went to school,” Sinitiere said. “When my kids were home, I was home.
“So it took me a little longer to get the degree in education but I found my niche.”
Her children were in junior high close to the start of high school when she began teaching. They were independent in the sense that she didn’t have to spend a lot of time doing homework with them.
Sinitiere’s family supported her decision to teach full time. “I have a very supportive husband,” Sinitiere said. “In fact, he lives at the school, too.”
Sinitiere teaches reading, grammar, spelling and writing to fifth grade students at Patterson Junior High. She is also team leader to fifth-grade teachers.
Her teaching style is more of a facilitator type. Sinitiere models her “extreme high expectations” with the belief that students will adapt and run the classroom in a structured manner as directed.
Sinitiere’s students are encouraged to do most of the talking in class.
“My philosophy is the one doing the talking is the one doing the learning,” Sinitiere said.
Seeking out professional development opportunities to perfect her craft is a must for her. She believes when people don’t grow professionally they become stagnant.
“I go look at new things because I want to give my students the best,” Sinitiere said.
“I’m the type of person to learn whatever I can. I go on YouTube, I talk to teachers all over the country.
“There’s always something better you can do. And I always believe that and I want my kids to do that.”
Six years ago, she attended an INSPIRE program for pre-K through 12th-grade teachers at Purdue University in Indiana for a week.
The program helps educators investigate how students learn, how to instill a desire in students to learn about engineering, and how to increase the ability and interest of a diverse group of young people to become engineers.
“I learned a lot of things that helped me implement exciting things when you’re teaching something new to kids.”
As a former science teacher, she used the process for science instruction. But now she uses it to instruct her students in reading classes.
“Loraine Sinitiere is a true educator and an exceptional model teacher for St. Mary Parish,” Karen Marin, Title I liaison for St. Mary Parish Schools, said in an email. “She is always open to any curriculum change, and is herself an eager student always searching for innovative instructional ideas to make sure that her students are successful.
“She is St. Mary’s best of the best!”
With all the knowledge she strives to attain in being the best teacher, she does not profess to know everything, especially when it comes to her students. Her humility helps to bring out the best in students.
“Mrs. Sinitiere teaches from her heart,” said Dawn Chaisson, principal at W.P. Foster Elementary in Franklin. “She puts the needs of her students above all else.”
Chaisson is a former assistant principal at Patterson Junior High.
“I love, too, that the kids teach me,” said Sinitiere. “I tell my kids all the time I might be your teacher but I’m not perfect and I don’t know everything.
“I’m learning … and they teach me. It’s exciting to see a kid when their light bulb goes off and my light bulb goes off because I’m impressed with how they’re thinking or impressed with what they’re doing.”
Winning teacher of the year for Sinitiere was an honor, especially at her own school where grade levels stretch from fifth to eighth grade. In addition, she had only taught at Patterson Junior High for three years at the time of her nomination.
“Truly, I think she is a good representative for St. Mary Parish so I was honored that she was selected,” Bergeron said. “I was very happy that they recognized her and the capacity to be a good teacher.”
“I love what I do. It’s just that simple,” Sinitiere said. “I don’t do this for the accolades.
“I think that’s why I was shocked I got teacher of the year. I’m not a person who needs all that.
“The only recognition I need is from the children. Don’t get me wrong it’s not like all this stuff doesn’t matter but I do it all for the kids.”
Sinitiere is married to Arthur Sinitiere. Together they have two children, daughter Jordan and son Devin. In addition, Sinitiere has three grandchildren.